Fusion

The journey from Qingshan Town to Hashan Prefecture City was no short one. Even riding at full speed, Warren would need most of a day. Leian had assumed the people from the prefecture city would not arrive at Qingshan Town until the following afternoon, but before dawn the next day, Warren and his group had already returned.

Judging by the timing, they had clearly set out overnight as soon as they received the news.

This time, the prefecture city had sent a total of eight people. The leader was named Toby. He was said to be a younger brother of the current prefecture lord and a seventh-level warrior.

The other seven were all guard knights. Their captain was named Wilson, also a seventh-level warrior.

As soon as Toby arrived at the estate, he summoned Lev alone and asked for the details.

Facing the prefecture lord's younger brother, Lev naturally did not dare conceal anything. He immediately described the entire incident, as well as the death scene he had witnessed, in meticulous detail.

According to Lev, the first people to discover the baron's body had been a small merchant caravan from the county. The caravan owner traveled to the countryside year-round to purchase goods and was acquainted with the baron.

Therefore, after discovering Laman's body, he had immediately informed the captain of the nearest Shage Town guard unit—Lev himself.

By the time Lev arrived at the scene, quite a few passersby had already gone through the area. However, they all knew the dead men were Baron Laman and another lord, Elvis, so no one dared move the bodies.

After hearing Lev's account of the scene and considering the recent rumors about Elvis and his son, Toby easily deduced the truth behind it all.

Clearly, this clansman of his had coveted the Cleo Family's wealth and chosen to ambush and kill Elvis in the middle of the night. Yet he had been no match for him and had instead been slain. In the end, Elvis had his throat cut by an unidentified mysterious expert, who took away all the money.

So much time had already passed that finding this mysterious expert was no longer very likely. At the same time, Toby, as the prefecture lord's younger brother, had little interest in the wealth of a small-town lord, so he had no intention of putting much effort into searching for the culprit.

Besides, the most troublesome matter now was not finding the culprit, but how to deal with the scandal of Laman ambushing Elvis.

According to Lev's description, the matter was extremely simple. Anyone who had seen the scene could guess the truth behind it.

So many people had passed by the scene that day. Perhaps everyone in Hashan County now knew that a baron of the Rachel Family had murdered someone for money in the middle of the night.

This was fucking humiliating!

After giving it only a little thought, Toby decided that this could absolutely not be admitted. After some deliberation, he instructed Lev to announce to the public:

The truth was that Laman and Elvis had long been at odds. The two had secretly arranged a duel, fought to the death, and ultimately perished together!

This explanation clearly could not withstand scrutiny, but it did not matter whether outsiders believed it. As long as everyone said so, it would become the truth over time.

Of course, that was only the public approach. Internally, Toby was thoroughly disgusted with Laman. On behalf of the prefecture lord, he immediately confiscated half of Laman's territory—four towns.

The reason he had not confiscated everything was that Laman's branch still had some connections in the prefecture city, so it would not be good to go too far.

As for the title, it had been granted by the emperor, and he had no authority to revoke it.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, half a month passed. Once Laman and his son had been buried, Toby returned to the prefecture city. Wilson, the guard captain, remained in Qingshi Town as the new commander.

Because Toby had confiscated four towns, some guard knights who came from those towns were sent back.

In order to gain control of the guard knights, Wilson reorganized the squads. In the end, he retained only three guard squads, though the number of men in each squad remained unchanged.

Since Leian and Lev were both sixth-level warriors, they retained their positions as squad captains. As for the last captain, he was a sixth-level warrior brought by Wilson himself.

After this round of adjustments, Leian appeared to retain the same status, but he had actually been sent to garrison another town.

Baifeng Town was an extremely remote little town with only half the population of Qingshi Town. As one of the three remaining towns in Laman's territory, it had been a month since Leian had been stationed here.

Being posted to such a barren town was not only unbearably dull in daily life, but there was no profit to be made either. An ordinary person would likely have grown impatient long ago, but Leian was perfectly content with it.

As the guard captain, he had only three duties:

First, ensure the town's safety; second, assist the tax officer in collecting taxes on time; third, safely escort the taxes to Qingshi Town at the end of every year.

The tasks seemed numerous, but in truth, aside from the last one, which required him to act personally, he normally did not need to show up at all.

As a result, Leian instead gained a great deal of free time for cultivation.

Sure enough, in just one month, Leian successfully switched to cultivating the Destruction Codex. Now, whether refining or recovering battle qi, his speed had increased severalfold.

Feeling that he was in excellent condition, he planned to fuse with that ninth-level destruction-attribute magic crystal core tonight.

Midnight soon approached. In a small courtyard built of blue stone at the center of town, Leian sat cross-legged in the middle of his bedroom, silently adjusting his condition.

Two items lay side by side on the floor before him: the Spring of Life and the ninth-level magic crystal core.

After a moment, Leian took a deep breath, grabbed the emerald-green vial, and drank the Spring of Life in one gulp. Then he picked up the ninth-level magic crystal core and shoved it into his mouth without hesitation. Following the secret method recorded by the Cleo Family, he began circulating his battle qi to refine the crystal core.

As soon as the secret method began operating, streams of purple-black energy immediately seeped from the hard magic crystal core under the erosion of his battle qi. They entered his body and flowed through his meridians toward every part of him.

Wherever the purple-black energy went, his muscles and marrow felt as though they were being tempered in a blazing furnace. Intense pain flooded his mind, and Leian's entire body spasmed.

Pain—indescribable pain!

When the purple-black energy reached every corner of his body, Leian felt as if every inch of him, inside and out, was being sliced apart by countless blades.

This sort of pain was truly beyond what ordinary people could endure. Although Elvis had recorded it in the family genealogy, Leian still could not help cursing inwardly.

Just as he was about to lose his ability to maintain the secret method, a cool current suddenly surged from his abdomen and began circulating through his meridians alongside the purple-black energy.

It was the Spring of Life!

Leian secretly sighed in relief.

Sure enough, with the addition of that cool current, the pain finally eased considerably.

However, the relief did not last long. Before long, Leian felt the pain in his cheeks, neck, hands, and feet gradually intensify again, accompanied by an unbearable itch.

Leian was not alarmed by this change. According to Elvis's records, it was a sign that his body was beginning to transform into a magical beast.

Moreover, because this was only the initial fusion with the magic crystal core, only parts of his body would undergo magical-beast transformation. It would happen quickly, so he did not need to worry about being unable to endure it for too long.

As Leian gritted his teeth and endured, patches of purple-black dragon scales gradually began covering the skin of his cheeks and neck. His hands and feet also slowly sharpened, transforming toward dragon claws.

No one knew how much time passed. When his limbs had completely transformed into dragon limbs, the pain finally began to lessen. Before long, Leian slowly opened his eyes.

By then, the magic crystal core in his mouth had completely vanished. Above his dantian, a purple-black diamond-shaped crystal slowly revolved.

This diamond-shaped crystal was the essence of the magic crystal core that had not yet been completely refined. Fusing with a magic crystal core was a long process.

Only when Leian had completely refined this diamond-shaped crystal would the fusion truly be complete.

Below the diamond-shaped crystal was Leian's battle qi. His battle qi had now liquefied, changed from pure black to purple-black, and increased in volume by several tenths. It had reached the peak of the seventh level. It seemed that he would not need long before entering the eighth level.

The changes in his battle qi delighted Leian immensely. In just this short while, he had saved himself several years of hard work.

Leian believed that entering the Saint Realm would not be a problem, but the time required was difficult to predict. In his mind, what had always restricted his entry into the Saint Realm was never comprehension, but the accumulation of battle qi.

Take Linley, for example. He had comprehended Worldly Momentum as an eighth-level warrior and touched upon the Laws and Profound Mysteries at the ninth level. Yet in human form, he had spent more than three years advancing from the seventh level to the eighth, another five or six years going from the eighth to the ninth, and more than a dozen years advancing from the ninth level to the Saint Realm.

Even a powerful Dragonblood Warrior required so much time to accumulate battle qi. What about him, someone born a commoner? It would probably take even longer!

But things were different now. Merely through the initial fusion with the magic crystal core, his battle qi had reached the peak of the seventh level. That was equivalent to saving at least three to five years.

More importantly, as the fusion deepened, the essence within the diamond-shaped crystal would continuously merge into his body, accelerating his battle qi accumulation.

This gave him confidence that he could reach the ninth level within five years.

After indulging in his hopes for a while, Leian finally remembered to examine the changes in his body.

First, his hands had completely turned into dragon claws. Black scales covered them all the way to his shoulders, joining with the dragon scales on his neck.

Second, his feet had not changed shape, but all ten toes had become extremely sharp, like awls. Dragon scales had also covered his lower legs.

As for his head, it had not changed much. Aside from his cheeks being covered in dragon scales, the greatest change was his pupils, which had turned completely purple, making him look cold and sinister. In addition, both sides of his forehead had slightly bulged, as though horns would grow there in the future.

After sensing his condition once more and finding no discomfort, Leian dismissed the magical-beast transformation.

After spending most of the night on this, Leian had no motivation to continue cultivating. He lay directly on the bed and slowly fell asleep.